Johannesburg - ANC NEC member Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will be upbeat in challenging incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 55th elective conference of the ruling party this week.
The conference is expected to kick off at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, on Friday, where the former health minister Zweli Mkhize is also expected to contest for the position of chairperson.
With reports doing the rounds that Dlamini Zuma might have teamed up with Mkhize to form a slate, it is unclear if she will be competing for the top job or for deputy president.
Also in the picture is Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who also might be eyeing the presidency.
The trio have been tipped to run under a single banner at the upcoming ANC conference.
In 2017, Dlamini Zuma narrowly lost to the now-beleaguered Ramaphosa, who has the Phala Phala scandal hanging over his head.
Ramaphosa, then the deputy president, became the leader of the ruling party, beating Dlamini Zuma by only 179 votes after a series of tense sessions at the party’s 54th conference.
Dlamini Zuma, the former chairperson of the African Union Commission, scored 2 261 votes to Ramaphosa’s 2 440 votes, with more than 4 700 delegates casting their ballots.
Dlamini Zuma will be eligible to be nominated from the floor on Friday when the voting begins.
Dlamini Zuma, who is also the minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, has been vocal about women taking the lead in the ANC. She has emphasised that the country needs a change that will see a woman leading the country.
Speaking at a round-table with Independent Media last month, Dlamini Zuma said she was prepared to be at the helm as the first woman president.
She said: “I think this time it’s really important because I think the ANC needs change with 110 years of men in the ANC at the helm. Let’s make a change and have a woman. South Africa has never ever had a woman. We need something that will excite people. Let’s have a change.”
She also expressed confidence in coming up top at the conference.
“I am standing, and I am going to win. Who entered a race to fail?” Dlamini Zuma asked.
This will be Sisulu’s second attempt after a failed bid to become the ruling party’s president in 2017. She has not been afraid of calling out an alleged corrupt judicial system and Ramaphosa for being fingered for wrongdoing in the Phala Phala scandal.
On Sunday, members of the ANCWL in Gauteng reassured Sisulu of their support ahead of the conference.
The women were speaking at Sisulu’s signature programme, hosted by the Gauteng ANCWL in Soweto, to conduct a headcount of delegates.
The women, who gathered at Nkone Maruping Primary School in Braamfischer, emphasised that as female delegates, they never nominated Ramaphosa as their candidate.
They said they know Sisulu as their only candidate and also revealed to her that Ramaphosa was imposed on them by former Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete.
Mbete was asked for a comment, and by the close of the day, she had not responded to the allegations levelled by the ANCWL Gauteng members.
“We fully support Sisulu and other women who are standing in the Top 6. It is time that the ANC realised that they take the position of women seriously. We are saying women should be accompanied in important positions. This thing of giving one or two women opportunity must come to an end. The ANC has adopted policies on gender equality, but we see resistance,” said Ndivhuho Sekoba, a former regional chairperson of JHB (dissolved).
She also raised the serious challenge of being silenced as women, hence they approached Sisulu, and she said Sisulu heard them out, so they are supporting her.
Sekoba and other ANCWL members gave Sisulu a mandate, especially on matters such as the fight against social ills, including gender-based violence and easy access to drugs by their children.
They also tasked Sisulu with the economic emancipation of women.
The women endorsed Sisulu as their candidate at the ANC national conference, and they indicated that they would work with any man who is not hostile to women’s leadership and emancipation.
The women told Sisulu to vote for the right thing in Parliament on Tuesday, and she will never be expelled by people “who joined the ANC yesterday for positions and tenders”.